Chapter IV
If a tree falls and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?
This was one of the thoughtful questions that had cropped up throughout the ages in various forms, and made most normal people consider it for a moment. Ninjas, on the other hand, thought about it for all of five seconds before they laughed. If a tree fell where nobody was around to hear it, then who cares?
But, because there's always some silly person out there willing to do some tricky thinking, they also adapted it to a more practical question.
If someone stole something that someone didn't know they had, was it really stealing?
Naruto had pondered that particular question, and decided that it wasn't.
So when Mizuki delivered the tests to Iruka's office a day earlier than the chuunin had expected Naruto had no qualms about breaking in and stealing one.
He didn't do it because he needed to. Even in the last semester of his education at the ninja academy, Naruto still managed to keep up with ease.
No, he wanted this test so that he wouldn't be blind-sided. Last semester Iruka had put a question about chakra control training into one of his tests, and Naruto had gotten halfway through it before he remembered that most academy students wouldn't be expected to know any more than the leaf training. Iruka had been giving him a funny look as he hastily erased his answer and evidence of his training.
Which was annoying. He knew it was wrong, but he hated being the weakest of the class. While they struggled to keep a leaf on their forehead he regularly stood upside down from branches to avoid detection as he kept up the surveillance of Uchiha Sasuke.
It had come as a quiet kind of realization to him a few years ago. Just because he wasn't practicing his fighting skills didn't mean he couldn't stop practicing his ninja skills. Quite the opposite, in fact. If he could get his skills of avoidance of detection to a high enough level, he would often be able to avoid fighting at all.
But, back on topic, he had stolen a copy of the test they were to receive tomorrow, and he was studying it with the intent of discovering what new stratagem the devious chuunin had come up with to discover the extent of his skill.
And was sorely disappointed to realize there wasn't one.
It had been one of the games he had played with the scarred man over the years. He would try to find out how well trained he was, and Naruto would try his best to not be discovered. Like cat and mouse, or fox and hound.
But to discover that Iruka had stopped made him sad.
A little disappointed but still wary, he committed the questions to memory and then thought on his answers.
And then he spent the rest of the day watching Sasuke unseen.
Hyuuga Hinata, with her powerful bloodline, could see many things that others could not. She could see in almost any direction, she could see chakra coils and flow and she could see through walls.
She could also see Naruto watching Sasuke religiously. At first, she had wondered at this briefly, but decided that he was simply trying to learn from Sasuke without the other's knowledge. So she continued to watch her crush with interest. It was only after a full year of such behavior that she began to question this assumption. After all, even if he was learning something she wasn't, he would have to practice sometime. But he never did.
And what he did practice was somewhat bewildering.
At times he'd perform powerful genjutsu, and he would almost vanish under all the layers of chakra. She knew that to those without her bloodline he would be invisible, but she thought it a bit excessive for him to develop to simply watch someone.
She ignored a voice in the back of her mind that informed her that she was currently hiding behind a tree and trying not to breathe. Her stalking skills were certainly up to par!
He'd never practice combat techniques, at least not where she could see them. He had improved his chakra control, then his stealth, and then his body.
It was strange to see the boy move, these days. At least, when he was moving quickly. When the other children had need for haste, they simply tried to move their limbs faster. Naruto, on the other hand, used his chakra internally. It would act like an auxiliary muscle, augmenting his speed and strength whenever he needed it.
But all this made her wonder.
At first she'd been drawn to him because of his persistent desire to overcome, despite his lack of skills. She'd seen something in him, a drive that she'd desperately wanted for herself. But then she'd seen him do things that no child should have been able to do, feats that some genin would find difficult. Why then was he performance at the academy so abysmal? Did he fear that his talents would be discovered? And if so, why?
She'd resolved herself to discover, one day. He was bound to slip up sometime...
But mostly she wondered why he was so fixated on Uchiha Sasuke.
He'd monitor the Uchiha heir in any position it took, always careful to avoid being caught. Upside down, on walls, and at times even transforming himself into a girl so he could follow more openly. There seemed to be no lengths he wouldn't go to, no barrier he would not cross to keep an eye on Uchiha Sasuke.
And eventually, she came to an undeniable, irrefutable conclusion.
Fukaine Naruto had a crush on Sasuke Uchiha.
When realization had come to her, she had tried to deny it. Her crush couldn't like boys like that! He wouldn't like her if he did! And so she'd tried to come up with a different theory.
Tried, and failed. Miserably.
Naruto liked boys. She had sobbed herself to sleep that night, and hadn't had the heart to look at him for weeks after that.
And then there had come a moment when her mind had wandered off for a moment in class, before her eyes roamed back to her blonde haired interest.
Thoughts came to her. Thoughts of him with other boys. Of him and other boys and her.
She'd squeaked loudly, her cheeks bright red and a dazed look on her face. And her hands held tightly to her nose. Somehow, this made things even worse. The entire class had turned to see what had caused her to disturb the class in such a way. She hadn't trusted herself to talk at that point, but people were suspicious of the manic grin on her face.
After a few minutes of people staring with varying degrees of concern and confusion, she reigned herself in enough to ask if she could be excused for a moment.
Iruka, a worried look on his face, allowed her to but asked if she felt up to remaining with the class for the rest of the day. She nodded hastily as she exited, all but slamming the door behind her as she made her way to the bathrooms.
There, blushing furiously, she blew her nose to clear it of the blood she'd been trying frenziedly to keep from showing.
"Oh Naruto-kun!" She'd sighed.
More thoughts came to her, causing her to redden further and blow her nose once more.
"Kyaa~!"
That had been three years ago.
These days she didn't need to excuse herself anymore to have the thoughts.
Fukaine Naruto knew he was being watched.
Probably by an agent of the hokage to make sure he was up to no mischief, or maybe by Danzo to ensure that he had no issues with resolve. He fully understood the need for it whether it came from either source. He was still somewhat of an enigma in regards to the former, and he hadn't even spoken to latter in almost five years. Both were entitled to be worried about him, if for different reasons.
But what he didn't understand was why they felt the need to let him know he was being watched.
He'd fully expected the higher echelons of the ninja hierarchy to be better at hiding their presence than this. And they'd have to be somewhat highly ranked, because no matter what he did, whatever trick he tried, he could not discover where his watcher was hiding. It was like trying to grasp smoke.
It annoyed him to no end. At least he didn't let Sasuke know what was going on! There was such a thing as pride!
Not that he'd ever admit to having pride in his skill of hiding and watching people. It chafed at what little moral fiber he had left in him. If he had any. He hadn't had a chance to find any, yet.
He was indignant, damn it!
He was a highly trained and conditioned ninja, and he knew that if a skilled tracker let his presence be known, they wanted it to be known. And if they wanted him to know he was being tracked, they wanted him to panic.
And, after months of trying in vain to discover his observer, Naruto was beginning to.
"What do they want?" He muttered to himself worriedly.
They didn't even stop when he was at the academy, and he found himself experiencing a kind of vengeance. If he found the class skull-crushingly boring, then his watcher must be hard pressed not to die of boredom.
He took his seat, and waited for Iruka to arrive, so he could be done with the whole academy business at last.
This was his graduation test, the test he had stolen the day before. He was confident that he could pass at the barest minimum, thus ensuring that he would likely end up at the bottom of the rosters.
So long as Sasuke remained at the top, they would likely end up on the same team. And if they were on the same team, he could observe his teammate without causing too much concern if he was discovered.
The third member would be of little consequence, so long as it wasn't one of the many girls who seemed to stalk Sasuke nearly as much as he did.
Wait. They stalked him. He observed.
He found that he had to put some kind of buffer between the two of them. Their strange, erratic behavior was something he fervently hoped to avoid. Doubly so the fanatic devotion they all seemed to possess.
Iruka arrived then followed closely by Mizuki, effectively killing all further speculation of his team formation.
Mizuki took a chair at the head of the class, and drew a book from somewhere on his person with a bored expression. Iruka on the other hand moved in front of the desk, surveying his students kindly. The scarred man was wearing a smile that almost seemed smug when it came to Naruto, while carrying a small stack of paper that was obviously surmised was today's test.
Strange... He'd been certain that the stack had been bigger yesterday.
"Naruto, could you come here for a moment?" The chuunin asked politely, earning a few snickers from the class.
Behind him, Mizuki raised an eyebrow.
Hesitantly he obeyed, arriving with a questioning look. When he did, Iruka bent down to Naruto's level.
"You do realize that I can count, don't you?" He whispered slyly.
Fukaine Naruto flushed, but did not answer.
Of course Iruka wouldn't use the same trick, he'd devise something new. And Naruto had walked right into it, exposing himself in the act. He glared at the chuunin angrily, but the scarred man merely grinned widely.
"Don't worry, I won't tell anybody." He said in mitigation. "In the meantime, please hand out these tests."
He handed Naruto the stack of paper.
A stolen glance at the top confirmed Naruto's fears.
Iruka had had a second test ready.
Prosaically, Naruto gave a copy of the test to each of the students until only his own remained, whereupon he promptly returned to his seat. He slumped at his desk, worried at what the new test would bring. Everything was uncertain, now.
"Begin." Iruka commanded when he was certain that everyone was ready.
The written test hadn't gone well. Unsure how to answer most of the questions to continue his goal, he had decided to err on the side of safety. He deliberately left half of the questions unanswered, and the rest thoroughly enough to make Iruka pause.
With any luck, he would give a passing grade.
Next would be the practical examination. He had thought that the test would be a simple displacement technique, but due to the recent changes he was now uncertain.
"Alright class, pencils down!" Iruka announced loudly, almost smiling at the groans some of the children let out. He wasn't a mean person, but it was kind of funny. "Anybody who didn't do too well on the test can always make up for it in the next part." He added helpfully.
Naruto was glaring at him, and this time Iruka did smile. He was hoping that the changes would force the boy to reveal more of his skill, so that he wouldn't end up at the bottom of the roster.
Sly as he was, Iruka hadn't considered that that had been exactly what Naruto wanted.
"The practical examination will be the basic transformation and clone techniques. When we call your name, please come to the head of the class and perform them as we tell you to."
Most of the class sighed in relief. They'd be hard-pressed to fail this part of the exam, at least.
Naruto merely narrowed his eyes calculatingly.
That's right, play the guessing game. Iruka found himself thinking. Try to find out what I'm hiding for once.
It was a fun turning of the tables, he had to admit. For years he'd been trying to find out what Fukaine Naruto was hiding, what skills he refused to reveal. Now he would be wondering what Iruka had in store, panicking just a little bit. Or maybe a lot. Who knew, really, with Naruto?
Names were called out, and one by one each of the students performed the techniques as Iruka and Mizuki dictated.
After what seemed like an eternity, Naruto was finally called up.
Warily, rose and walked over to the two teachers. Behind him a few titters erupted as well as a few derogatory mutters, but he ignored them for now. He could get them back alter, after all.
"Alright, first the transformation technique." Mizuki advised, then with a mischievous grin pointed to the man beside him. "Turn into Iruka."
Shooting the gray haired man a strange look, Naruto formed a seal.
A moment later the class was surprised to see a perfect copy of the scarred chuunin wearing Naruto's seemingly permanent expressionless face staring at them unblinkingly. Mizuki raised an eyebrow, not exactly expecting such an easy transformation.
"The expression is all wrong-" He began, but was silenced when Iruka cut in.
"That doesn't matter." He said quickly, before leaning in close to the other chuunin. "He can't quite grasp them, really."
Naruto was annoyed at this, and promptly let this show.
In his 'Iruka' guise, he slowly deliberately stuck a finger into his nose, and waggled it around daintily.
Most of the students erupted into incoherent giggling fits and laughter, causing the chuunin to blush furiously and shout them into silence. Even Mizuki was grinning at the spectacle.
Satisfied that the slight had been addressed, Naruto let the transformation collapse.
Iruka coughed into his hand, still embarrassed, and allowed Mizuki to continue with the exam.
"Alright, next make two clones."
At this Naruto hesitated. He knew he could do the technique flawlessly, had done so before as well. Iruka knew he could do it. So why make it part of the exam?
There was some kind of trick somewhere, a hidden catch.
But was it worth failure? And what kind of failure?
If he failed the graduation test this year, he still had two more chances. It would merely be most advantageous to pass this one, but it didn't directly inhibit his mission. Or, wait, it did. Eventually Sasuke would be sent out of the village, where he couldn't watch if he was still in the academy.
But he couldn't reveal the extent of his skill, especially not in this manner.
He was torn, conflicted. Surely Danzo hadn't expected something like this to happen? Not the sadistically inquisitive mind of one chuunin. Could he?
He was the commander of an elite section of the ANBU, and a trusted advisor of the Konoha council.
The more he thought about it, the less sure he became.
"Anytime, Naruto." Mizuki commented idly.
Feeling the pressure, Naruto decided to err on the side of caution. Caution towards his 'family', the men and women who had raised him from birth.
He made the seal, and flooded the technique with chakra. The resulting clones were warped, strange things that promptly collapsed into a heap, their skin a strange shade of green and gray.
Both the chuunin merely raised an eyebrow at this.
"Naruto..." Iruka sighed with a disappointed look. "You fail!"
Mizuki frowned, and turned toward his friend.
"He did create the clone, surely we can let him pass-"
But Iruka would have none of it, his expression imperious.
"No, we can't. If Naruto can't perform a technique as simple as this, then he would only be a liability to whatever team he was assigned. He might even get someone killed."
Naruto panicked as he realized that Iruka was serious, that he really was going to fail.
"B, but what about the written test?" He protested.
"The practical exam was the deciding factor, Naruto!" Iruka erupted. "I'm sorry, but you'll just have to try again next year."
The blonde felt his mouth dry up, but he had resolved himself to this. He would sacrifice this for Danzo, for Root. He would fail his mission...
"Unless you can show us something more impressive." Iruka said slyly, and suddenly Naruto knew the chuunin's game.
Of course Iruka would know that he would try to skim across the border of failing. He'd done so for five years, he was hardly going to stop now. It hid his abilities, and ensured his safety. But now it had led him into this... this trap! It was too much!
He could pass, he could show them all that those brats behind him that they had been wrong, that all these years he had been playing with them. Even now, he could pass at the top of the class...
All he had to do was betray his comrades.
Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat, and frowned.
His conditioning returned to him, and he felt nothing.
"I'm sorry, Iruka-sensei." He said mournfully. "But I can't do that."
With a defeated look on his face, he returned to his seat.
He'd been a fool for even considering betraying Danzo. He might enjoy living outside of the Root compounds, but he held no illusions as to what would happen if it seemed like he couldn't be trusted anymore. In the best scenario, he was merely incapacitated to the degree that he could never reveal another of their secrets.
In the worst, he would simply disappear.
Disappointed, Iruka dismissed the class for the day. Naruto remained, crippled by one of the many emotions he was still unused to. His chest felt like something had constricted around it, his flesh felt cold and his eyes itched.
He was so absorbed in this sensation that he hardly even noticed when Mizuki sat down next to him, a comforting smile on his lips. He lay a companionable arm around the boy's shoulders, and pulled him close. Skilled though he was, Naruto had no chance to sense the subtle manipulation of chakra as the chuunin used the
"Hey, not to worry little guy." He said amiably, and Naruto felt the tightness in his chest lighten a bit. "There's always next year."
Naruto snuffled, and was unsure as to why this should be so. He wasn't sick, after all. Or maybe he was? Maybe someone had poisoned him...
"I, I needed to pass this year, though." He blurted, and was suddenly baffled why he did so.
Mizuki's smile widened ever so slightly. Naruto didn't notice, and wouldn't have given it any notice even if he had.
"Well, there is a way you can pass." He said conspiratorially. "There's a secret test that only a select few are told about."
Unbalanced as he was, Naruto believed him. He listened eagerly to the gray-haired chuunin as he explained how he could pass...
Naruto, fleeing the hokage tower with a massive scroll strapped to his back, couldn't believe he had been stupid enough to go along with this plan.
He'd had misgivings when Mizuki had told him that he would have to steal a scroll from the hokage's office. But, mysteriously, he'd never acted on them. He hadn't suspected the chuunin of manipulating him.
Which he now knew. Whatever the man had done, it had worn off. Naruto, with his head clear and a squad of jounin following him, became annoyed.
Someone had exploited his moment of weakness, planted madness in his mind.
His eyes narrowed.
Someone was going to pay for what had been done to him.
Glancing over his shoulder, he was distressed to see a pair of masked ninjas gaining ground on him. ANBU. And not likely to be one of those under Danzo's command, either. They would likely kill him if they managed to catch him, thinking him a traitor to Konoha.
Suddenly, Danzo's mission was a secondary priority. Escaping with his life became his number one objective.
Before fear had a chance to sink in though, he felt himself retreat back into his conditioning. It was the first time it had happened since he'd been released, but he was glad he did. Fear, exhilaration, happiness, it was all devoured by the black pit in his mind that he hadn't even suspected existed. It took them all, and left him bare.
With cold certainty, Fukaine Naruto flashed through a series of handseals faster than any genin could only hope to one day achieve. He let himself slow down, let his pursuers come close.
He could feel their presences getting closer, he could hear their leaps and bounds as they caught up.
Without even the smallest of grins, Naruto finished the last handseal. In the darkness of night, what he was about to do was especially cruel.
"Radiant shadow technique." He whispered, naming one of the many surveillance techniques he had developed.
His skin erupted into brilliant, blinding light as his chakra caused him to briefly become violently bioluminescent. The ANBU behind him cursed almost simultaneously, and lagged for a moment as they tried to blink away for the spots from their eyes.
Even as they did, his chakra now rapidly began absorbing light, changing him from a blinding light to a black spot. Their eyes thus damaged, they had no way to see him suddenly veer away from the village into the forest.
But even with this, Naruto knew it would only be a few moments before they were back on his trail.
Lacing chakra along his bones and muscles, he leapt up into the boughs of the trees with a single powerful leap. Once there, he began a second sequence of handseals. Uncertain as to how much more time he had, he drew in a deep breath of air just as he finished the last seal.
The sound of his movement suddenly vanished as the technique he used to effect. His footfalls were soundless, the rustle of his jumpsuit was silenced. Less obvious, his scent was left only where his feet landed.
Even for a skilled tracker, his trail would be difficult to find. Unless one of the ANBU pursuing him belonged to one of the tracking specialist families, he was likely to be safe until morning.
Making good speed, he decided to go to the spot where Mizuki had told him to wait. He might as well learn something from the scroll until the chuunin arrived.
Umino Iruka was shocked to learn that one of his students had broken into the hokage's office and stolen the Forbidden Scroll. The shock had subdued when he learned that the student in question had been Fukaine Naruto.
The hokage had summoned him to his office to learn what he could about Naruto's abilities. Iruka had been ashamed to admit that after five years of teaching the child, he had no idea what they were. A mastery of the basic ninja techniques at least, and likely a cunning mind.
The old man behind the desk had merely nodded, then asked him to try and find the boy.
But he wasn't the only one. It looked like every ninja not on active duty already had also been dispatched on this task, including ANBU. He was worried about the last, as many of their number were likely to deal with Naruto harshly. And quickly.
Determined to find the boy before any of the others, he sped off into the night in pursuit. He spotted his friend, Mizuki, and decided that it would be best if they cooperated. After all, two pairs of eyes were better than one.
He increased speed to match that of the other chuunin, not noticing that Mizuki was following a very narrow search route. He had bigger things on his mind, like how he may have inadvertently caused this situation...
"Naruto?" Someone called through the gloom of the forest, causing the young blonde to pause in his studious attention to the scroll unraveled in his lap. "Are you there?"
Fukaine Naruto knew better than to answer, and resumed his study. He was waiting here for a very specific reason, and he knew he was well hidden from anyone who might come looking for him. Various seals had been strategically scrawled into the trunks of trees, damping whatever sound he made and alerting him if any chakra signature came too close.
He was studying the shadow clone technique, something he'd pined after for years. If he'd had it when he'd started this accursed mission, he could have avoided so much. The painfully dull classes, the horribly banal training sessions of Sasuke Uchiha and whatever other forays into the village he'd been forced into for various necessities.
He absorbed the fundaments of the technique quickly, experimentally performing it.
A puff of smoke revealed that he had them down, and he read on.
Or would have, anyway.
One of the marked trees suddenly activated, alerting him to a new presence.
With a smile, he dispelled the clone and rolled the scroll up.
"Naruto?" Someone whispered, and Naruto recognized it as Mizuki.
The boy waited a moment before speaking. He rose from the ground, strapped the scroll to his shoulder once more, and dusted himself off before doing so. As he did, the chuunin walked into the small clearing the boy had been using as his hideout, a small smirk on his face.
"Mizuki." He answered, a dark smile forming. "You tried to get me killed."
Silence greeted this, as Naruto had expected. Mizuki's smile vanished, replaced instead by a deep frown.
"Naruto?!" A second voice shouted incredulously. "What are you talking about?"
This surprised the young blonde. He had expected Mizuki to be working alone, but this did not seem to be the case. But worse, he recognized this voice! He'd never have suspected him of such a betrayal. Which should have made him suspect it all the more, he surmised.
"Iruka-sensei?" He said incredulously. He felt his blood chill as realization came to him.
Naruto could kick himself at the simplicity of it all. This was why Iruka had tried so fervently to gauge his skill. He wanted to know how much a challenge Naruto would give at this moment.
So much the better that he had never given either of his opponents a chance to fully learn the threat he presented.
"So, you were working together." He said slowly, ignoring the pain in his chest. "I should have known, I guess."
Iruka emerged into the clearing now as well, a bewildered look on his face.
"What are you talking about, Naruto?!" He demanded. "Come with me, we have to get to the hokage before the others find us. He might go easy on you, you ju-"
"Oh shut up, Iruka." Mizuki snapped. "Naruto, give me the scroll."
The boy sneered suddenly, and turned his focus fully on Mizuki.
"Do you really think I'd do that?" He demanded, and move into a combat stance.
Mizuki laughed, and moved as if to pull a kunai from a pouch.
"Well, I guess I can kill you and then take it." He said chidingly, flipping the weapon in his hand. "But it'd be so much easier if you just did as I said."
Iruka shot his friend a look of utter disbelief, reeling from the second discovery of the night. Naruto didn't appear to be listening, instead watching the gray-haired chuunin with a calculating eye.
"What are you saying, Mizuki?" He asked incredulously. "Did you...?"
The other man shot Iruka a look of exasperation, taking his eyes off the boy to do so.
"Did I betray this sorry excuse for a village?" A sneer formed on his face as he said this. "Of course I did, you-"
But he never got the chance to finish the sentence.
Naruto moved with a speed that neither Iruka or Mizuki had ever suspected, crossing the ground between him and Mizuki in a blur of orange.
The chuunin tried to react to the movement, but it was already too late. Relying on his ANBU Root training, Fukaine Naruto knew better than to give his opponent any chance to recover. His first blow came as soon as he got close, feigning with a punch and following up with a crushing blow to the man's knee.
The man bellowed in surprise as his leg gave out, forcing him into a kneeling position. Not waiting for his opponent to recover, he took advantage of the man's lowered position to bring a hard palm strike upwards to his nose.
Iruka watched the devastating exchange with a horrified look on his face. He knew that Naruto had been hiding his abilities, and so had Mizuki, to some extent. But neither had suspected this. As Naruto delivered the second blow, Iruka heard the telltale snap and crunch of bone, and knew that Mizuki was dead. The blow the boy had inflicted had driven the nose cartilage up through the man's skull, into his brain. Even now blood dripped copiously down his face, as the body thrashed about slightly in its death-throes.
Just as Naruto had intended.
He'd been shocked to hear what Naruto had said to Mizuki, and even more so when Mizuki had confirmed it. He'd never even suspected his friend of harboring a single traitorous thought, let alone the willingness to trick and then murder one of his own students. He was still numb from it all, but not so much that he ignored a possible threat. Naruto it seemed, whose abilities were still largely unknown, had been trained to be able to quickly and effificiently murder his enemies without a moments hesitation.
"Naruto..." He whispered, aghast at all.
The boy in question leveled him an expressionless stare as he heard his name, and turned to face him fully.
"Are you satisfied, sensei?" He demanded. Rage pulsed through his veins, burning his mind with its conflagration. "Did I perform to your standards?"
Iruka saw the boy tense, but unlike Mizuki he was prepared. As Naruto exploded into movement, he was shocked to see the scarred man replaced with a log and a puff of smoke. The boy narrowed his eyes in annoyance, and allowed himself to slow down
A displacement technique.
Naruto swatted the log away and hastily surveyed his surroundings, searching for his enemy.
He never spared the log a second glance, and wasted no time in turning his back on it in search of the chuunin.
"Running, traitor?!" Naruto shouted, anger infecting his mind. The betrayal of his teacher and, as he had believed, friend was affecting him profoundly. The control of his conditioning had vanished, replaced instead by the burning need to destroy.
"Come out and face me!" He called out to the forest, goading his teacher.
He heard the pop from behind him, and realized his error quickly. Not a displacement, but a transformation! He whirled around with murder in his eyes, only to receive a powerful blow to his temple.
Naruto crumpled instantly, sagging to the ground.
Umino Iruka, panting deeply more in anxiety than exertion, picked up his student and the Forbidden Scroll. With a mournful look at the body that had been his friend, he stole off into the forest once more, in the direction of the hokage's office.
After all, he would want to know what had transpired, if he didn't already know.
A/N: I've gotta learn how to make these chapters the right size. There were some other things I wanted to put into this chapter, but if I did it would have made this thing a monster and a half. A few of the scenes I'll simply reuse in different chapters, making us all laugh or whatever. Hopefully.
I've also gotta stop waiting until the ass-crack of dawn to give the chapter a once-over. It never works out, and I always end up spending the following afternoon correcting silly mistakes.
And no. There will be no yaoi. I've got no beef with it, and everyone else can like it until the sun collapses on itself, destroys us all and the cows come home. Hinata simply has a working imagination.
I did it simply because the idea because made me cackle. It still does. Heh.
And as for the reviews and favorites and so on and so forth, well, I love it! MORE, I say! Propagate into a great thingee of stuff! Worship the story!
Ahem. Sorry about that. That twisted wench Mania let herself in, and I had to menace her with a newspaper to make her leave. In any case, much appreciated!
Next chapter: A confrontation! Or two!
